My journey to madness
Posted: Sat Apr 27, 2019 7:27 am
Hello,
Since I lurk a lot and ask question when I need to replace component, I think it's time I share my experience for those interested.
I gradually lower the noise of my computer over the last 5 years, the research for silence is very long and you increase your standard at each upgrade, I should've went all in from the start...
Here is my milestones:
-I started by switching back to air cooling (From a Corsair H80 to Noctua NH-U12P-SE2). The H80 endup getting air inside the close loop, then the pump start to make a "blub" sound like an aquarium pump.
-4 year ago I was annoyed by a low "hum" sound when the PC were idle I bought 2 NF-S12A FLX to replace my tower 120mm (which were a Thermaltake Element S), I had to heavily reduce the input voltage to make them inaudible that was a let down, but I keep them since they were still better than what I had previously. My motherboard at the time didn't support PWM. I also switched from an HD6950 to an Asus GTX 970, second disappointment but it was still a straight upgrade.
-2 year ago I moved my HDDs out of my case, I had a WD black 2To that could not be shutdown automaticly.
-Last year I got a BitFenix Formula 80 Plus Gold 550W, it's the only PSU that did not stop its fan and silent focused. It's a Gold PSU it's cheap, and I didn't want to have heat stuck in my case when the PSU was passive.
-Also last year I switched to a Bequiet SB 600, If you consider this case beware one of the 2 from 140mm has a third of it's area obstructed by the lowest cover 5"1/4 slot which has no slot inside the case. One of the S12A FLX has been replaced with the stock Pure Base 120mm, and I kept it for bottom intake and I kept the Pure Base 140mm for lowest front slot. I strongly advice against having those on a silent build. At the "silent" level they give absolutely no airflow.
-I had enough of the Asus 970 noise, I switched to an used 1080 with the intend to replace the fan with the earlier released A12X25, the fan are driven by the NA-FC1, I put a 80% on the GPU PWM, but I removed the stop fan. The fan are at 400RPM for 32°C with low load, at they are at 1400RPM for 60°C in burn. I can post more picture of the mod and how I did it if you are interested.
-Last update, I replaced my motherboard with a MSI Tomahawk Z390 with a i7-9700 at constant 4.8Ghz since I wanted to keep a silent build i didn't want to go above 1.28V, front fan is replaced with a 1000rpm Silent Wings 3 140 mm and bottom fan with yet another A12X25. I also bought the new U-12A, to replace the U12P which were not quiet enough idle. As last effort a put some foam at the top, I will remove it at some point, not heavy enough to make any difference.
The PC is now below the noise threshold of the room idle, so "silent" by my standard, and very quiet while gaming (fastest fan is at 1500rpm) and temp are below the 70°C on the CPU.
To sum-up my experience:
-PWM is a must, I can't go below 600rpm with the S12A FLX, and it's the only fan I ever had which can reach the "silent" status while DC.
-Modding the GPU is a good option to shut the GPU at load, but it will cost you an extra 80 buck (2 fan + controller) and you will void the warranty.
-The foam provided by "silent" oriented case is poor at best, most of the dampening come from the fact that your air flow is indirect and partially obstructed.
-You can have a quiet setup if you spend a lot of time tuning the setting on the motherboard, but if you want silent you have to pay the premium price for the high end fan.
-Inaudible fan speed is better than passive component that end up stacking heat and having on/off duty on fan.
Couple pictures:
Since I lurk a lot and ask question when I need to replace component, I think it's time I share my experience for those interested.
I gradually lower the noise of my computer over the last 5 years, the research for silence is very long and you increase your standard at each upgrade, I should've went all in from the start...
Here is my milestones:
-I started by switching back to air cooling (From a Corsair H80 to Noctua NH-U12P-SE2). The H80 endup getting air inside the close loop, then the pump start to make a "blub" sound like an aquarium pump.
-4 year ago I was annoyed by a low "hum" sound when the PC were idle I bought 2 NF-S12A FLX to replace my tower 120mm (which were a Thermaltake Element S), I had to heavily reduce the input voltage to make them inaudible that was a let down, but I keep them since they were still better than what I had previously. My motherboard at the time didn't support PWM. I also switched from an HD6950 to an Asus GTX 970, second disappointment but it was still a straight upgrade.
-2 year ago I moved my HDDs out of my case, I had a WD black 2To that could not be shutdown automaticly.
-Last year I got a BitFenix Formula 80 Plus Gold 550W, it's the only PSU that did not stop its fan and silent focused. It's a Gold PSU it's cheap, and I didn't want to have heat stuck in my case when the PSU was passive.
-Also last year I switched to a Bequiet SB 600, If you consider this case beware one of the 2 from 140mm has a third of it's area obstructed by the lowest cover 5"1/4 slot which has no slot inside the case. One of the S12A FLX has been replaced with the stock Pure Base 120mm, and I kept it for bottom intake and I kept the Pure Base 140mm for lowest front slot. I strongly advice against having those on a silent build. At the "silent" level they give absolutely no airflow.
-I had enough of the Asus 970 noise, I switched to an used 1080 with the intend to replace the fan with the earlier released A12X25, the fan are driven by the NA-FC1, I put a 80% on the GPU PWM, but I removed the stop fan. The fan are at 400RPM for 32°C with low load, at they are at 1400RPM for 60°C in burn. I can post more picture of the mod and how I did it if you are interested.
-Last update, I replaced my motherboard with a MSI Tomahawk Z390 with a i7-9700 at constant 4.8Ghz since I wanted to keep a silent build i didn't want to go above 1.28V, front fan is replaced with a 1000rpm Silent Wings 3 140 mm and bottom fan with yet another A12X25. I also bought the new U-12A, to replace the U12P which were not quiet enough idle. As last effort a put some foam at the top, I will remove it at some point, not heavy enough to make any difference.
The PC is now below the noise threshold of the room idle, so "silent" by my standard, and very quiet while gaming (fastest fan is at 1500rpm) and temp are below the 70°C on the CPU.
To sum-up my experience:
-PWM is a must, I can't go below 600rpm with the S12A FLX, and it's the only fan I ever had which can reach the "silent" status while DC.
-Modding the GPU is a good option to shut the GPU at load, but it will cost you an extra 80 buck (2 fan + controller) and you will void the warranty.
-The foam provided by "silent" oriented case is poor at best, most of the dampening come from the fact that your air flow is indirect and partially obstructed.
-You can have a quiet setup if you spend a lot of time tuning the setting on the motherboard, but if you want silent you have to pay the premium price for the high end fan.
-Inaudible fan speed is better than passive component that end up stacking heat and having on/off duty on fan.
Couple pictures: